KARACHI (December 13 2007): Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked 159,666 cellular phones on the public complaints of their theft or snatching by the street criminals mostly from Karachi since September 2006, officials told Business Recorder on Wednesday.

About 51 percent of the total requests have been registered with the authority only by the Karachiites who plead the authority for getting their cellular phone blocked because either they have been stolen or snatched by the street criminals, they pointed out.

Lahore being the second largest city, surprisingly, the authority has blocked only six percent of the total blocked mobile phones across the country, according to official statistics.

On the requests of mobile phone users from Ralawalpindi, the authority ceased four percent of the total blocked handset, three percent from Islamabad and Faisalabad respectively, two percent each from Hyderabad, Bahawalpur and Gujranwala.

One percent cellular handsets each from Peshawar, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha, Vehari, Larkana, Qasur and Okara while 19 percent on such pleas have been made to the authority by the people from the other parts of the country for getting the lost phones workability ceased during the said period, statistics added.

Moreover, the authority has also unblocked 9,541 mobile phones on the requests of their former operators. The unblocking of these mobile phones have been initiated by the PTA since October 2006 which still continues, statistics said.

Officials informed Business Recorder that on the directives of the Governor Sindh, Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, the law enforcement agencies had striven hard to scale down the increasing number of cellular phones snatching by the overwhelming street criminals. They hoped that in next months the authority may receive lower number of requests by the mobile phone operators for making their handsets unworkable.

In September 2006, the authority blocked 352 mobile phones in September 2006, 9,608 in October 2006, 9,574 in November 2006, 8,992 in December 2006, 10,420 in January 2007, 9,906 in February 2007, 12,193 in March 2007, 11,577 in April 2007, 11,633 in May 2007, 12,003 in January 2007, 13,138 in July 2007, 13,284 in August 2007, 11,536 in September 2007, 12,699 in October 2007 and 12,751 in November 2007.

Similarly, since September 2006, it has unblocked 87 cellular phones in October 2006, 370 in November 2006, 443 in December 2006, 518 in January 2007, 561 in February 2007, 712 in March 2007, 839 in April 2007, 812 in June 2007, 866 in July 2007, 923 in August 2007, 874 in September 2007, 754 in October 2007, and 949 in November 2007.

These increasing numbers of public complaints and requests for their lost phones ceased showing their unbreakable confidence in the authority, as it has also introduced toll free numbers for complaints registration, officials said and added that the authority had also acted promptly on their complaints and requests.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:12/13/2007